If 'Hit Me' (Mulholland Books) turns out to be Lawrence Block's last work of fiction, as the 74-year-old mystery grandmaster suggested to the New York Daily News it might be, then it's a fine finale for a writer who never stopped growing, and who allowed some of his series characters the same privilege of changing.

I can't remember if I first found Block through his old fiction-writing column in Writer's Digest, or through one of his early Matthew Scudder or Bernie Rhodenbarr mysteries. But from the beginning I found his writing like pizza: good even in its ordinary manifestations, mind-blowing in its excellent ones. As a reader, I feel the same way about his late friend and occasional collaborator, Donald E. Westlake. As professional writers of popular fiction, they saw their job as keeping readers entertained enough to turn the page, and turn the pages we did. | Feb. 20, 2013»Read Full Blog Post